Vista Visions Academy students suggest mascots for new school

Stargazers, zombies among proposals

Students Brea Anderson, Isabel Wilson and Alyssa Webster created this poster to persuade classmates that the Huskies should be the mascot of their school, Vista Visions Academy. Students will choose the Huskies, Eagles or Stargazers as their mascot. CREDIT: Gary Warth

Students Brea Anderson, Isabel Wilson and Alyssa Webster created this poster to persuade classmates that the Huskies should be the mascot of their school, Vista Visions Academy. Students will choose the Huskies, Eagles or Stargazers as their mascot. CREDIT: Gary Warth

Vista Visions Academy students soon may be the Huskies, the Eagles or the Stargazers.

They will not, however, be the Zombies, Polar Bears, Vipers, Owls or Possums.

The K-12 school opened in August as Vista Unified School District’s first K-12 campus and new independent study program.

With 145 students settled in, the district is trying to select a mascot for the school, and Assistant Principal Sandy Barnes said the school turned the task into a learning exercise that had students researching their subjects and making persuasive presentations to other students.

A committee has narrowed the possibilities to three — the Huskies, Eagles and Stargazers — and students will vote on the names the week of Nov. 5. The school board will have final approval.

High school English teacher Michelle Spencer said students from all grade levels suggested names.

“We talked about how important and lasting a mascot is,” she said inspiring students to participate in the selection. “We encouraged them not to include mascots that already exist in the district and to think outside the box.”

Elementary students made their suggestions by filling out forms while middle and high school students created posters, researched their subjects and made presentations to other students.

One student even created a PowerPoint presentation, Spencer said.

Barnes said the exercise was used as a lesson in persuasive writing, persuasive reading and research, part of the state standards for English language arts.

Spencer said that meant students used the classic principals of ethos, pathos and logos, meaning they had to demonstrate reliability, emotion and logic in making their persuasive argument.

About three weeks ago, students made their pitches to classmates, who ranked their favorite suggestions.

A committee that included Spencer, middle school teacher Jennifer Wachtler, Barnes and Principal JoAnn Jones narrowed the suggestions down to three.

Wachtler said Kiah Graveson, Cheyenne Wickline and Melissa Sanchez were among the students who suggested eagles. A team consisting of Brea Anderson, Isabel Wilson and Alyssa Webster suggested huskies.

“Huskies are smart, brave, highly intelligent and are good listeners,” a synopsis of their suggestion read. “They are a cross breed between dog/wolf, just like VVW crosses all grade levels.”

Some students are home-school, which inspired one student to suggest an owl as a mascot.

“Most owls live on their own, and we are home-schooled,” the student wrote.

Eleventh grader Delila Wiedenhoffer suggested the Stars as a mascot, but Spencer said the committee found it too short. Delila was open to the idea of changing it to the Stargazers.

Elementary students may have had the most creative suggestions, which included zombies, vipers and wolverines.

Wachtler said many students chose mascots that represent the unique qualities of Vista Visions Academy, the only school in the district that is K-12. That led one student to suggest a wholphin, a rare hybrid that is born to a female bottlenose dolphin that mates with a male false killer whale.